1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for slicing a number of articles, such as vegetables and fruit, and, more in particular, for slicing tomatoes thereby resulting in a plurality of uniform thin slices in a single slicing operation.
The apparatus and the method according to the invention are able to slice several, in general a series of two up to ten or more, articles. Most particularly, the invention is related to slicing a series of tomatoes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Several different slicing apparatuses and methods are known. Devices and methods for cutting or slicing fruits and vegetables are known in the art and, in fact, certain well known hand-operated devices have been developed for cutting or slicing only tomatoes. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,948,132 (""132) describes an apparatus for slicing fruit and vegetables such as potatoes, carrots and onions, as well as tomatoes, hard boiled eggs and the like. A set of parallel cutting blades is positioned into a horizontal plane provided with a frame member for initially receiving the article to be cut. Further an article engaging member is provided for engaging and forcing the article through the cutting blades.
Although the apparatus disclosed in the ""132 reference is for slicing tomatoes, the pushing direction of the pusher elements is, at least in the beginning of the slicing, not perpendicular to the direction of the cutting plane. As this is, particularly for slicing tomatoes, of extreme importance, it is therewith difficult to obtain accurate slices and the risk of squashing the tomatoes will be present.
Various other devices are available for slicing tomatoes and other soft fruit and vegetables by utilizing a pusher with spaced fingers for pushing the tomato, fruit, or vegetable at an angle along between a rack of sharp parallel spaced blades. Several of these devices are known being enhanced by holding the blades as rigidly as possible, making them simple, free acting, and dependable.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,184,397 describes a further enhancement in which a substantially vertical, hollow, triangular enclosure frame is included having a substantially wedged-shaped interior space, bounded by three sides, as a pushing unit. However, again the movement of the pusher towards the cutting plane is not always perpendicular thereto.
The consensus regarding the mode of operation of the above-mentioned devices seems to be that articles, such as tomatoes with their relatively thick skins, should be pushed through the fixed cutting blades with a slight amount of rotation of the article in certain instances, to improve the mentioned slicing apparatuses. The problem of all above-mentioned slicing apparatuses, however, is that uniform slices are difficult to obtain therewith. The problem with slicing tomatoes in particular is that they are squashed, rather than sliced.
A slicing device and method in which a rotational movement of the objects to be sliced is not required, has been described, for instance in GB 600,131. Herein, an old technique and device for slicing and chipping hard vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots, or similar tubers is disclosed. The vegetables, which do not undergo any rotational movement, are pushed perpendicularly through a bed of fixed cutting blades. The device comprises a cutter frame provided with fixed cutting wires or blades supporting the vegetable, and a pusher element that pushes the vegetable through the cutter frame. Using this particular device a central portion of vegetables can be sliced into thin slices, while the more irregular ends of the vegetables are cut into larger and thicker pieces. These two types of sliced vegetable pieces are collected in separate pails.
Although this old cutting technique facilitates obtaining uniform slices of an article, it is not generally suitable for cutting vegetables with a soft texture, such as tomatoes. As the cutting frame consists of fixed cutting wire or blades, a considerable pushing force is necessary to push the vegetables through this cutting frame. In the particular case of slicing tomatoes, this pushing mechanism would often result in squashing rather than slicing the tomatoes. In addition, the device comprises the collection of the sliced articles into pails, which does not allow further easy and hygienic handling or transport.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,985,268 describes an apparatus and method to obtain uniform slices of pineapples. The apparatus includes a device for removing the ends of the pineapples, a slicing device to slice the remaining part of the pineapples into discs, a grading device for grading discs according to diameter and a de-skinning and coring machine for treating the graded discs.
Once again, this device may provide a method to obtain uniform slices of an article, but is time-consuming as the separation of the non-desired end parts, the slicing of the intermediates discs and their collection is performed in several operational steps and devices. Moreover, long-lasting handling procedures before final collection of the desired slices may improve non-hygienic circumstances. In addition, this device is not suitable for slicing vegetable or fruits that do not need to be de-skinned or cored, such as tomatoes.
The invention offers improvements to the known apparatuses and methods which, in particular, are directed to the non-rotational movement of the objects to be sliced. The main object of the present invention is to provide a uniform thickness of the collected slices and to collect the sliced articles in a hygienic and practical way.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a method and an apparatus for slicing vegetables and fruit, in particular for slicing tomatoes, which results in a plurality of uniform, thin slices in a single operation. All known slicing apparatuses result in an array of slices of which at least two slices, i.e. the end slices (in general the extreme left and right slices), per sliced article are not equal to the thickness of the intermediate slices. Uniform thickness of the intermediate slices is generally obtained due to the correct parallel alignment of the cutting blades. As the size of the article along the cutting plane is in general not exactly equal to an integer multiple of the width of a plurality of cutting blades, the sliced article results in a number of equally thick sliced intermediate slices and two, i.e. in general an extreme left and an extreme right end slice, having a thickness smaller than the intermediate slices. In particular for tomatoes, but also for a number of other fruits and vegetables, these end slices are from a consumer point of view not desired.
The invention provides a device and a method which are able to separate the end slices, which are generally of a different thickness than the equally thick sliced intermediate slices, and further to collect the intermediate slices in a single operational step. In addition, the invention is related to further improvements such that all slices are of a uniform size and neatly and hygienically sliced and packaged.
In a first aspect, the invention provides a slicing device for slicing a number of articles in one slicing operation, comprising a frame, a plurality of horizontally disposed cutting blades mounted in the frame for receiving an article to be sliced, an article pushing member pushing the article into the cutting blades and a support member positioned between the cutting blades and the pushing member, wherein the support member is able to support, at least temporarily, the articles prior to slicing, and a collector positioned underneath the cutting blades for the collection of the sliced articles, wherein the collector comprises a first collection unit for the collection of the end slices and a second collection unit for the collection of the intermediate slices.
By providing two separate collection units, namely a first collection unit for the collection of the end slices and a second collection unit for the collection of the intermediate slices, the device of the present invention provides for the possibility of only collecting the intermediate desired slices having a uniform slice breadth. The collection of the intermediate slices will result in a series of slices of a uniform thickness. If an array of five tomatoes is, for example, being sliced, the left and right end slices (in total: 5xc3x972=10) will be collected via the first collection unit and transferred away from the collection of the desired fraction being the intermediate slices. All the intermediate slices of all the tomatoes can then be further collected via the second collection unit according to the invention. As already explained above, left and right hand end slices of vegetables and, more in particular of tomatoes, are not desired by the consumer as they possess less tasty components such as style pieces, stalk pieces, the sepal, calyx pieces, peduncule pieces, and root pieces. The invention solves these inconveniences by offering a device that enables the collection of the desired slices only, being the intermediate slices.
In a second aspect, the invention relates to a method for slicing an article into a plurality of slices having an equal thickness, the method comprising the steps of slicing the article into a number of slices resulting in two end slices and a number of intermediate slices, the intermediate slices being of a uniform thickness, collecting the intermediate slices, and collecting the end slices.
The method of the present invention facilitates slicing different kinds of articles into uniform slices and collecting the slices of an equal thickness in such a way that immediate transport or use is allowed. Particularly advantageous is that this slicing process can be performed in a single operational step, which helps ensure hygienic handling and which is cost as well as time-effective. In a more preferred embodiment, the invention includes the use of the device according to the invention for slicing an article into a plurality of slices having an equal thickness.
Further advantages and improvements of the present slicing device and the method according to the invention are elucidated in the following detailed description and will be further explained in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.